


THE ORGANIZATION 
= OF CAPITAL^= 



Lecture delivered vinder the avispices of the Twentieth 
Century Clxib, at Farveviil Hall, Boston, Mass., 
November 20th, 1902. 

'By HERMAN JUSTI 

Commissioner Illinois Coal Operators Association 











THE ILLINOIS COAL 
OPERATORS ASSOCIATION 



1002-3 Ellsworth Building 

355 Dea.rborn Street 

Chicago, 111. 



FAITHORN PRINTING CO., CHICAGO. 



J^ 






Illinois Coal Operators As 

OFFICE, IOO2-3 ELLSWORTH BUILDING 

355 DEARBORN STREET, CHICAGO, ILL 



OFFICERS 

O. L. Garrison, President 

J. A. Agee, Vice-President 

E. T. Bent, Secretary-Treasurer 

C. L. Scroggs, Recording Secretary 

<^£P : 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

<j O. L. Garrison, Chairman 

C. L. Scroggs, Secretary 
First District — 

H. N. Taylor, A. L. Sweet, S. M. Dalzell 

Second District — 

J. H. Garaghty, W. W. Keefer 

Third District — 

C. A. Starne, Lee Kincaid, Edwards Brown 

Fotirth District — 

D. D. S hum way, F. W. Lukins, Walter Puterbaugh 

Fifth District — 

C. F. Parker, J. C. Muren, A.J. Moorshead 

Sixth District — 

F. D. Secor, C. E. Hull, S. B. Eaton 

Seventh District — 

F. S. Peabody, M. C. Wright 

Eighth District — 

Henry Long, Richard Newsam, G. W. Traer 

Ninth District — 

Randolph Smith, E. C. Donk, Geo. T. Cutts 



THE COMMISSION 

Herman Justi, - - - Commissioner 

C. L. Scroggs, Secretary of Commission 



By I rani.t. 
D. C. Public Library 
AUG 1 7 1934 



The Organization of Capital. 
By Herman Justi, 

Commissioner Illinois Coal Operators Association. 



• Lecture delivered under the auspices of the Twentieth 
Century Club, at Faneuil Hall, Boston, Mass., November 20 
1902. 



Beneath all discordance, beneath all social and 
political and industrial friction, beneath every minor 
note proclaiming the dissatisfaction of a people, lies 
ever and always the universal longing for harmony. 
It is the note that has been sustained through all the 
centuries since the creation and reminds man of the 
basic principle in the original cosmogony. 

We know how the Creator of all things saw that 
they were good, and how, in the language of Dry den, 
the diapason of all harmony in the plan of creation 
closed full in man. It is not strange, therefore, that 
man clamors to-day for his heritage, in spite of the 
persistent interference of Adam, who sounded the 
first note of discord. 

Out of the material which God first gave, from the 
smallest atom in nature up to the human heart and 
brain and brawn, and higher still to the spirit which 
inspires the whole, man has evolved a social system 
which has in it the elements of perfection. And yet 
we know that the system is still not perfect. Nor can 



it be made perfect until every part, having its 
special function, has been so systematized as to become 
an harmonious part of the great whole. This must be 
accomplished through the agencies which dominate an 
organization of the forces employed. 

In the industrial world these agencies are capital 
and labor, and that discord exists in the industrial 
world I ascribe to this : Labor is as yet but imperfectly 
organized, while Capital is not organized at all. 

In view of the confusion in the public mind, pro- 
duced by much that has been said in the prints and on 
the platform regarding the consolidation of capital 
and the organization of labor, a word of explanation 
may be necessary. 

In a certain sense labor and capital have been 
organized or consolidated with different ends in view, 
but both are coldly selfish, capital having con- 
solidated and labor having organized for the sole 
purpose of increasing respectively the dividends 
of capital and the earnings of labor. Neither has 
grasped the vital and primal motive which should 
actuate consolidation on the one hand and organization 
on the other — the necessity of dealing fairly, honestly 
and wisely with labor in its broad sense and as it ap- 
plies to all who work with brain or brawn, and with all 
who go to make up what we call in general terms 
the public. 

In the consolidation of capital the capitalist has 
said, in substance, preservation is the first law; let 
the public and labor look to themselves. In the organi- 
zation of labor the laborer has said in substance, capi- 
tal and the public are one, and the camel cannot pass 



through the eye of the needle; I must look to my 
own salvation. 

When capital is once duly considerate of the rights 
of labor, when labor becomes mindful of the protection 
due to capital, and when both are regardful of what 
is due the public, then it may be truthfully said that 
capitalists and laborers have organized to some good 
purpose and indeed have solved the so-called labor 
problem. 

The following seem to me self-evident propositions: 

Capital is entitled to protection and .fair dividends. 

Labor is entitled to favorable working conditions 
and to fair wages. 

If these results are obtained for both capital and 
labor the public surely cannot suffer, provided the 
public at the same time recognizes that it also has 
some duties. 

Under existing conditions there remains no other 
alternative; capital and labor must approach the issue 
with these ends in view or else look for a never-ending 
continuance of the perplexities which rob life of its 
serenity, industry of its profits, and, in the end, hu- 
manity of its food and raiment. This is no idle assertion 
when we reflect that vengeance is in the keeping of an 
omnipotent Providence who, according to His own 
assurance, will not fail to repay the children of men 
according to their deserts. 

I trust I may be able, in the course of this address, 
to disclose the nature of this duty without employ- 
ing figurative sign-posts to point out the application. 

First of all, let me say that it is not my purpose 
to be either the eulogist or the apologist of the em- 



ployer class, or the critic of the employee class. I 
shall rather essay the unpopular role of truth- 
teller to both, for in no other way can the best or 
the most faithful service be rendered. Both have 
been injured enough by flattery and neither has been 
helped by abuse. They are either bitter because they 
have suffered from the one or they are afflicted with 
self-sufficiency or self-complacency because they have 
had too much of the other. The plain, unvarnished 
truth alone can free them from conditions that have 
either been brought about by oppression on the one 
hand or by unreasonable exactions on the other. 
Neither is blameless; neither is either so good or so 
bad as it seems, or at least neither is so good or so 
bad as it is represented. 

WHY CAPITAL SHOULD ORGANIZE. 

To avoid all misapprehension of what is meant 
by organized capital, let me say briefly what is not 
meant by it. Organized capital, in the sense here 
used, is not synonymous with "trusts, combinations 
or pools." It does not contemplate any plan looking 
to the consolidation of firms or corporations, — to 
influencing the market values of stocks, or of regulating 
the prices of commodities. It can have no effect 
either upon prices or values excepting in so far as in- 
dustrial peace may insure to them reasonable stability. 

Here let me observe that I do not share in 
the general opposition to consolidation, nor do 
I share in sympathy for small industrial enter- 
prises simply because they are small. I believe 
most of us have discovered that a mean man with 

6 



small means is apt to do more mischief than a mean 
man with large means, because he has less sense and 
generally uses poorer judgment. "The wave of good 
and evil," as the Sage of Concord observed, "washes 
all alike." 

What really is sought to be accomplished through 
the agency of organized capital, in that sense in which 
I shall use the term, is to prevent strikes, lock- 
outs and serious friction, and to insure, as far as may 
be, peace and harmony in the industrial world. 

To me it seems this can best be done by or- 
ganizing the various industries of the country into 
voluntary associations. For example, the car- 
penters have a union, — let the builders or con- 
tractors have an association; the machinists and 
moulders have their unions, — let the manufacturers 
of machinery arid the founders have their associations; 
the coal miners have their unions, — let the coal opera- 
tors have their associations, and so on through every 
trade and industry. Let capital pattern after labor — 
organize. If labor has its chiefs, — so also let capital 
have its chiefs, and let them have their lieutenants; 
indeed let capital follow the example of labor even 
to the extent of employing a corps of "walking dele- 
gates." — Yes, let them go to the extent even of or- 
ganizing a Federation of Industries to cope or co- 
operate, as the case may be, with the American Federa- 
tion of Labor. What we need, — what we must have, 
is the collective wisdom and power both of capital 
and labor. (^What I said on this subject at the "Con- 
ference on Industrial Arbitration," held under the 
auspices of the National Civic Federation, in Steinway 



Hall, Chicago, December 17, 1900, seems to me still 
true. At that time I said: 

'To me it seems that all efforts to permanently pre- 
vent strikes are almost certain to fail, unless labor and 
capital are both thoroughly organized, the strength of the 
respective organizations being so nearly equal that neither 
side can presume upon the weakness or unpreparedness 
of the other. \ The peace of nations, as we well know, 
is preserved by the fear which each nation has of li waking 
a sleeping lion," and a prudent dread of the consequences. 
The great powers of the world have approximately accu- 
rate information of each other's resources, strength and 
preparedness, and hence, wars in our day usually occur 
only between a giant on the one hand and an infant 
or decrepit nation on the other, differences between equally 
strong nations being left for settlement to diplomacy. 
The same is in a certain sense true of conflicts in the 
industrial world. Labor, while not perfectly organ- 
ized and not so rich in resources as capital and there- 
fore unequal to a protracted industrial war, is so much 
better organized than capital that in short, decisive con- 
flicts, in continuous skirmishings, it usually comes out 
the victor. In fact, it is no exaggeration of the truth 
to say that the difference in favor of the organization of 
labor, as compared with the organization of capital for 
the purposes I have indicated, is as great as the difference 
in the discipline and power of the regular army and of 
a hastily improvised home guard." y 

Long ago Abraham Lincoln said: "This govern- 
ment cannot endure permanently half slave and half 
free." To-day we can say with equal truth: Industrial 
peace cannot be preserved with labor organized and 
capital unorganized. 

8 



CONSOLIDATION VERSUS ORGANIZATION. 

If the strike in the anthracite region has proven 
nothing else, it has at least proven that great consoli- 
dated capital and organized capital are not identical, 
for if organized it would not have waited to defend 
itself against grave charges until public opinion had 
crystallized and was a unit almost against the opera- 
tors. If organized it would have known the history 
of all such strikes, and particularly the strike occurring 
in the bituminous coal fields during 1897, and, know- 
ing this, it would have made itself strong where capital 
in previous conflicts was notably weak. It would 
have known the value of diplomacy; it would have 
given strike news to the public through its own press 
bureau ; it would have taken the public into its con- 
fidence; it would have taken nothing for granted, 
and it would have accepted as sincere some of the 
advice offered by business rivals in the bituminous 
coal fields. But as in the past, capital was suspicious 
of capital, so, even now, the operators in the anthra- 
cite field are distrustful of the operators in the bitu- 
minous field, a deplorable condition certain to con- 
tinue until through tribulation they become, first 
reconciled and then united. 

If further proof is necessary that the organiza- 
tion of capital and the consolidation of capital are not 
the same, and that, as I have contended, capital is 
not organized, let us consider the appeal recently ad- 
dressed to the employer class of the country by D. M. 
Parry, President of the National Association of Manu- 
facturers. This association is perhaps the largest and 
the most influential voluntary body of employers in 

9 



the United States. In his appeal President Parry 
informs the employer that no officer of his association 
receives a dollar in salary, except the Secretary, and 
that the office of President means a personal expense 
to himself of five thousand dollars each year, and that 
when the danger signal is flashed the members of the 
Legislative Committee of his association hurry to 
Washington, paying their own expenses. 

Can it be fairly maintained, then, that this vast 
association of capital is really organized? Can this 
be called an army of capital when it has no weapons 
of defense — no munitions of war? Thus unorganized, 
thus unequipped, can it really be watching the in- 
terests of capital? Is it possible? 

Such a body of men, though representing enormous 
wealth and the highest intelligence of the country, 
must take its cue from labor. How much more 
business-like is labor's* management of such matters! 

Take as an example the Mine Workers' Union of 
Illinois. It has 37,000 members, and each one of these 
pays into the treasury for the use of the union an 
average of eight dollars annually. This union, only one 
branch of the National organization of miners, has in 
its treasury at the present time over $200,000, and this, 
too, after contributing, not from its special strike as- 
sessments but out of the treasury, $25,000 to the strike 
fund in West Virginia, and $50,000 to the strike 
fund in Pennsylvania. 

It has, therefore, not only money and men, but it 
has officers and committeemen doing duty everywhere, 
all in close touch with each other and ready to 
act on a moment's notice. And what is true of the 

10 



miners organization in Illinois is true of organized labor 
everywhere. Organized labor here emphasizes the 
truth of the familiar saying: "In Union is Strength." 

It is true such organizations of capital as I have sug- 
gested do exist even now, but they are so few in number 
that they are no more in comparison to the vast number 
of industries not organized, than a few drops of water to 
the great ocean. Still, these few organizations of capital, 
while limited in the means at their command — limited in 
their influence and power — have shown what can be 
done in restraining radicalism and in preventing friction 
between employer and employe, and their success is so 
marked that it should encourage the employer class in 
every trade and industry to do as these few have done — 
organize. If capital had been thus properly organized, 
the anthracite strike in Pennsylvania and the Freight 
Handlers' strike in Chicago would either have been 
wholly averted, or else a wise and honorable way would 
have been found to end them in much shorter time; for, 
depend upon it, a wisely organized association would in 
times of peace not only have prepared for war, but it 
would have had at command a plan of adjusting such 
troubles impossible to provide after serious disputes have 
arisen. 

OBLIGATIONS OF THE CAPITAL CLASS. 

Aside from mere considerations of self-protection, 
capital should organize, first of all, to discharge its obliga- 
tions as the representative of a sacred trust. The capital 
class should be, if it is not, the intelligent class of the 
community, because its opportunities are greater and its 
means of improving these opportunities are the best. It 

11 



can, and it should, set an example which labor might 
gladly follow, and which the public would encourage and 
approve. But this is not possible unless capital organ- 
izes and, through the vast machinery of organization, 
becomes a great school to dispense information among the 
masses of the people and afford a striking example to 
them of self-restraint, fair dealing, industry and public 
spirit. Without organization, this, I say, is not possible, 
because capital can have and because it has, what labor 
has not — a divided interest — it is at war with itself, or, 
rather, it fails to make common cause as organized labor 
makes common cause. 

The financial panic of 1893 has been described as a 
bankers' panic. In a sense this is true, for the fury of that 
panic can be easily traced, in many localities at least, to 
the desire of one bank to rise on the ruins of another. 
This unfortunate spirit of rivalry, I regret to say, is not 
confined to the banking community, but it, to a greater 
or less extent, pervades all industries, and notably so 
where there is no organization among kindred industries 
and so no proper basis of understanding among them. It 
is the destructive rivalry in the industries of our country 
which in the past has had the tendency to needlessly 
reduce the wages of labor, to impose upon it at times 
inhuman conditions, and thus to make it a dissatisfied 
class. The panic of 1893 was unnecessary and might 
have been averted if bankers had been organized for 
mutual helpfulness. Wages would seldom need to be 
reduced if capital were organized and the represen- 
tatives of our industries had reached an understanding 
whereby a destructive, "cut-throat" practice of com- 
petition could be eliminated; for when this practice 
begins the wages of labor feel its first blighting effect. 

12 



It is unfortunate, but it is none the less true because 
unfortunate, that capital suspects labor, labor suspects 
capital, and the public suspects both. I believe most 
strikes could be averted if there was some way of proving 
to workmen the truth of the assurances of their employers 
that an advance in wages would mean financial ruin, or 
that the refusal to submit to a reduction in wages 
would necessitate suspension of work. If you can 
prove to them that the employer is really sincere and that 
he is not, as is too often the case, deceiving them, they 
will generally listen to reason. But they have been made 
much too often the scapegoat for the crimes or follies of 
others. It is not fair to punish labor where labor is not to 
blame, and when capital is to blame. It is right that 
labor should share in losses incurred where neither 
employer nor employe is to blame; but, even then, such 
losses can often, if not always, be wholly avoided or 
mitigated by the intelligent action of organized forces. 

The purpose of such organization of capital is, there- 
fore, to see if a way cannot be found not only to bring 
capital and labor to a better understanding, but, first of 
all, to get capital itself firmly established and able to 
present a united front to every danger. 

A SYMBOL OF AUTHORITY. 

Man's inherent respect for authority should be the 
best argument for the organization of capital. The 
uniform and arms of the soldier, the blue coat and badge 
of the policeman, command our respect — not necessarily 
because of individual worth, but because the uniform 
and arms of the soldier and the public official bespeak the 
authority reposed in the wearer by the government to 

13 



which we owe allegiance and which has the power to 
compel our respect; the public do not necessarily, and 
do not generally, respect the individual, but they yield 
a certain homage to the collective body of indi- 
viduals ; and the greater the number of individuals, the 
greater their influence and power — the more they are 
respected. Then, again, what is everybody's business is 
nobody's business, so that what is in fact the most 
important work in any department of industry is left 
unperformed. 

The purpose of such organization of capital as I 
propose is therefore not to oppress, to repel, to antagon- 
ize, to make war; but to deal fairly, to conciliate, to pre- 
serve peace, to insure stability. Still if resistance is 
made to properly constituted authority or war is waged 
against accepted principles of justice, against wise busi- 
ness rules or economic laws, then a united and prepared 
force is at hand, and if prepared, there is less likelihood 
of hostilities. 

It would be rank hypocrisy to say that capital 
should not or that it will not organize to resist or 
oppose organized labor, or pull away from it where 
it has already been recognized. It would be folly not 
to prepare for what is possible, and the less strong 
this organization, the more likely such a conflict. 

The more perfectly capital is organized, now that 
labor is organized, the more honestly both sides will deal 
with each other, for capital must, first of all, be honest 
with self, and it must be organized to punish all of 
its own number who discredit the name of "honest 
business man." 

Rich or well-to-do men are sometimes found who 

14 



belong to the class described by an old friend of 
mine. He often told, with keen zest, the story of 
a rich man about to die. Having concluded that 
he should prepare for the long journey via the 
Catholic Church, he sent for a priest. The 
priest arrived, proceeded to hear his confession, but 
the patient was so slow about it that the good Father 
plied him with question after question, and finally 
flatly asked: "My son, did you ever steal anything?" 

"Well, no," replied the invalid, "I never exactly 
stole anything, but they do say I have been a pretty 
sharp trader." 

It is just such a man as this, occasionally seen 
in real life, here and there, who brings discredit on 
the whole business community. 

HIGHER BUSINESS STANDARDS. 

If organized capital fails to make employers wiser 
and fairer, more intelligent and more generous, — if 
it does not, besides restraining them, increase their 
charitableness, their wise sagacity, their public spirit, 
then such organization must fail and will deserve to 
fail. The same is true of organized labor, because 
the whole legitimate purpose of organization is to 
place proper restraints upon its membership, and not, 
as many seem to think, to give such organizations 
power to overcome or to oppress its rivals, or to impose 
upon the public. Justice, therefore, is the one great 
essential in business life, for no other has an equal 
economic value. 

Grave charges have been, at times, deliberately 
and seriously preferred against organized labor, in 

15 



effect that its members had been guilty of lawlessness, — 
of violating agreements, — of practicing petty tyranny, 
and these charges, — whether well-founded or un- 
founded, — have been denied with equal fervor. It is 
unfortunate that false charges should have been made, 
or that well-grounded charges have been denied, for 
the only way to meet charges founded upon fact is not 
to deny them, but to freely admit the truth regarding 
them, and to show a disposition to remove all grounds 
for suspicion and complaint. Unfounded charges 
soon fall of their own weight. There has been law- 
lessness, there have been violations of agreements, 
there has been practiced much petty tyranny, and 
what the labor movement, therefore, needs is not 
only what are called "leaders of men," but leaders of 
ideas. The labor movement, if it is to succeed, must 
have just such leaders who can rise above sordid in- 
terests or above the clamor for petty office, and who 
will tell the truth to their people, let it cost them what 
it may. 

LABOR STILL IMPERFECTLY ORGANIZED. 

I have said that labor is only imperfectly organ- 
ized, and perhaps those who have read of the vast 
army of laborers belonging to the different unions and 
affiliated with the different federations of labor, will 
expect an explanation. Great numbers enrolled in 
various associations do not necessarily mean that 
these men thus enrolled are organized. Unless by 
association laborers are made more capable, more 
skilled, more saving of their earnings as well as of 
their health and strength, more respectful of authority, 

16 



more watchful of the interests of their employers, 
more thoughtful of the welfare of wife and children, 
more loyal to the true principles of their guilds, more 
obedient to the laws of the land, and more jealous of 
their country's honor, at home and abroad; these 
laborers might as well band into mobs and openly 
proclaim themselves hostile to their fellowmen, to 
country and to God. It will be infinitely easier to 
deal with a mob thus sailing under its true colors than 
with an association of so-called workmen pretending 
to be something they are not. 

It cannot be truthfully said that labor is really 
organized until organized labor is in practice what it 
is now in theory. 

Many of the members of the union may be appro- 
priately likened to an old negro down in Kentucky, 
about whom the story was current years ago, that in 
prayer meeting one night he said : 

"Bredderin' and sisterin', I been a mighty mean 
nigger in muh time. I had a heap er ups an' downs — 
'specially downs — since I jined de church. I stoled 
chickens an' watermillions. I cussed. I got drunk. I 
shot craps. I slashed udder coons wid muh razor, an' 
I done a sight er udder things, but thank de good 
Lawd, bredderin' an' sisterin', I ain't never lost muh 
religion." 

There are, it will be found, many members of the 
union who are guilty of all sorts of acts that reflect 
upon the standing and character of their organization, 
and they are willing to admit them, but still, like the 
old darky, the unionist will thank God, he has never 
yet lost the union card. 

17 



SPECIALISTS AND EXPERTS NECESSARY. 

Why, then, shouldn't the employer class have its 
organizations dealing exclusively with wages and the 
conditions of labor, — organizations in charge of special- 
ists or experts in labor matters, — a sort of labor bureau 
connected with every industry, and having some of 
the features of a weather bureau? Isn't it just as im- 
portant to prevent friction, strikes and lockouts, — 
to protect capital against losses from such causes as 
to protect it by means of insurance against fire or flood 
or cyclone? Thus organized there is always someone 
on deck watching for breakers ahead, and the ship 
of commerce is not left rudderless to the mercy of 
wind and wave. As the pilot on the bridge obtains 
a clear view of the sea and of the horizon, so the repre- 
sentative of such an organization of the employer class, or 
the representative of an organization of the labor class 
should be able to detect incipient troubles in time to 
apply the remedy and to thus avert danger and injury. 
Thus organized such remedies will be at hand because 
experience will have provided them, and what is better 
still these remedies may not be at all required, because 
labor, like the human system, will have been carefully 
watched to the end that no disorders occur. 

Assuredly this is an age demanding in the labor 
world the services of specialists and experts, for nowhere 
else have disorders in late years been so common, nor 
have they been so demoralizing. Our growth and devel- 
opment is so rapid that it is no longer possible in our 
large cities for one man to practice at one and the 
same time all branches and departments of medicine. 
These are now divided up into specialties, with the result 

18 



that all the energies and talents of the individual practi- 
tioner are concentrated upon his specialty. Can we 
doubt the advantage of such a system to the patient? 
With the rapid advance made in every department of 
business and in every profession, is it not strange that sci- 
entific knowledge has as yet been so sparingly applied to 
the labor problem? There is no problem of our day at 
once so many-sided and complex, and none other so 
important ; and yet it is the one most neglected. Capital 
seems to have lost sight of the fact that when labor is 
demoralized or is idle trade is either deranged or entirely 
stopped. 

THE CHICAGO FREIGHT HANDLERS' STRIKE. 

Take, as an illustration, the recent freight handlers' 
strike in Chicago. Here trade was brought to a stand- 
still, and the busy merchant or the manufacturer was 
forced to desert his desk and enter into negotiations with 
representatives of labor and he had to enter into negotia- 
tions with scarcely any previous warning and with no 
previous preparation. The representative of labor, on 
the other hand, had been thinking about nothing else for 
weeks and months but the advantages he expected to 
gain from the employer as the result of his demands. 
The strike of the freight handlers is said to have cost the 
people of Chicago ten millions of dollars. An organiza- 
tion of the employer class at that time might have been 
maintained, upon an elaborate scale, for $50,000 or 
$100,000 per annum, and it would not only have bene- 
fited the trade of Chicago and the labor employed in that 
city, but such an organization would have redounded to 
the industrial good of the entire country. But the 

19 



employer class, as a rule, is unwilling to do anything 
until heavy pressure is brought to bear — until *war has 
been declared — and then it contents itself with some 
temporary adjustment which seldom, if ever, accrues to 
the ultimate good either of employer or employe. 

It is true that during the freight handlers' strike the 
General Managers of the railroads centering at Chicago 
were, in an imperfect way, organized, but they could 
not be in touch with other bodies of employers, because 
there were none. That railroad companies, otherwise 
adopting, regardless of cost, whatever will save ex- 
pense and protect life, are not organized to deal scien- 
tifically with the labor problem is surprising. 

When this disastrous strike was over the newspapers 
contained hundreds of interviews with Chicago business 
men. The burden of these interviews was the same: 
"We must take precautions to avert a repetition. " But 
it is the same old story, and these precautions have not 
been taken. Meanwhile, organized labor is getting 
stronger and the prejudice against capital grows ever 
and ever more bitter, each succeeding experience in 
industrial warfare illustrating the costliness and ulti- 
mate peril of unorganized resistance. 

Of one thing we may be sure: If capital does not 
provide adequate organization, to deal wisely and fairly 
with labor, and labor does not eliminate from its organ- 
izations whatever is opposed to the laws of business and 
the Constitution of our country, the masses of the people, 
I venture to predict, will force the government to take a 
hand in the solution of the labor problem. Nothing 
could so seriously embarrass both — nothing could so 
much endanger much that is admirable in American 

20 



Democracy. Only by wise organization of both capital 
and labor is this calamity to be averted. As I have 
already said, labor is at present, though imperfectly, 
organized. Capital must organize, for, thus organized, 
it will save to itself millions upon millions of wealth and 
at the same time protect labor against the damaging 
consequences of its own folly. Human nature has not 
changed in the short time since capital had its own way 
in dealing with labor, and justice will continue to be 
usually denied to a weak rival or opponent. Therefore, 
the two must be as nearly equal in strength or power as 
possible. 

As no man liveth to himself alone, so no separate 
system- can be perfect which has its own good as its only 
ultimate goal, irrespective of the rights of others; and 
human forgetfulness of this fact is the secret of prevailing 
discord. 

HOW THE LABOR PROBLEM IS NOT SETTLED. 

The labor problem, we may be sure, will never be 
settled so long as labor sees only its wrongs and so long 
as capital sees only its interests. We cannot settle this 
problem by closing our eyes to our full and awful share of 
folly and crime, or by denouncing the oppressions of 
wealth or the tyranny of labor. Only by looking the 
issue fairly and fully in the face is a step forward possible . 
The great need of our times is to have all classes or 
elements in the industrial world having a common 
interest firmly united, and when capital is once so 
organized we shall see business methods adopted by 
labor unions everywhere. Already this is true of some 
of them, and therefore these are never heard of in the 

21 



noise and din of industrial conflict, because these have 
issued their interdict against strikes — much to their 
honor, and much to their profit. 

After all, a large majority of the most disastrous 
strikes that have afflicted our country were primarily 
due to imperfect organization on the one hand and to no 
organization at all on the other. Strikes are generally 
distasteful to a majority of workmen — a majority of 
workmen usually oppose strikes — but a few zealots or 
radicals usually prevail. Why is this so? If you ask 
me why zealots and radicals so often control the unions, 
I will answer by asking you why are our large cities 
generally badly governed? It is because conservative 
citizens remain away from the primaries and often 
neglect to vote. The same is true of labor organizations. 
Their old and conservative members remain away from 
local meetings. I have much sympathy with the senti- 
ment expressed by the indignant citizen who declared 
that he had more respect for the citizen who voted twice 
than for the citizen who didn't vote at all. I regret to 
say that I have known many employers, (and these, 
too, dealing with organized labor,) to encourage con- 
servative union men in absenting themselves from 
meetings, thinking thereby the sooner to destroy the 
union. 

That is not only not fair, but it is not wise. If 
we are to deal with unionism, we must deal with it 
fairly; and, if we deal with it fairly, — we must deal 
with it not sentimentally, but practically and with 
honest sympathy. We must, in fact, study it as a 
new system designed primarily for the benefit of wage- 
earners, but incidentally and naturally for both capital 

22 



and labor. A duty, therefore, rests upon the employer 
class greater and more vital than merely paying fair 
wages; it must help to make good citizens of the toilers 
who look to it for employment whereby they are to 
obtain their daily sustenance. To me it seems that 
organized labor, despite its mistakes, its weaknesses, 
its misdeeds, and even its crimes, has earned a fair 
and impartial trial. But it is not possible for it to 
long survive, unless its rival, organized capital, is so 
strong and wise that it will keep organized labor within 
proper bounds, and so save it from committing the 
folly of which capital was guilty when it was subject 
to no great restraining power. 

THE BUSINESS IDEA MUST DOMINATE. 

The business idea must pervade the whole fabric 
of organized labor if its success is to be permanent. 
If it is recognized, and employers enter into contracts 
with it, it must be able to supply all the labor and of 
every variety which the needs of the employer may 
require. If it cannot supply capable laborers in sufficient 
numbers, it should strive to help instead of hindering 
the employer. It must grow strong without any re- 
striction to production, and without . opposition to 
labor-saving machinery. It must be responsible to 
capital for every injury inflicted, just as capital is 
held responsible, or else it will be at once discredited. 

Labor organizations must have a due appreciation 
of the value of time, particularly the time of active 
business men. The relations of organized capital and 
of organized labor will soon be dissolved if no more 
regard is paid to the value of the business man's 

23 



time than is shown for it in the coal-mining industry 
of Illinois, where, in making the joint agreements 
for 'the current year, 120 days were consumed in the 
Interstate, State and Sub-district Joint Conventions. 
No one appreciates the folly of such a course more 
than the officials of the Mine Workers' Union, but thus 
far they have been powerless to change it. Organized 
labor everywhere must help to bring about a better 
system, otherwise its good name must suffer. 

Strong theoretical reasons why organized labor may 
be advantageously recognized may be easily supplied, 
but this is an intensely practical matter and something 
more than theory is demanded. It must, by its works, 
commend itself and be its own best argument. It must 
show that it always gives the best , service ; that it 
keeps its word; that it does successfully appeal to its 
members to rely upon the ballot, and not upon the 
bullet, or the boycott; that it obeys the laws and that 
it does not usurp authority or practice tyranny. 

UNITED LABOR MUST STAND FOR CHARACTER. 

There is nothing equal in importance to example. 
Society will ultimately either approve or disapprove 
of organized labor on the strength of the example given 
to it by organized laborers. If, when mention is made 
of skillful workmen, it can be said that they were 
always members of organized labor, then society will 
approve of the union and favor its universal recogni- 
tion. So long as the union is popularized by making 
union labor the best, it will be triumphant, but what- 
ever is gained to the union by permitting or encourag- 
ing inferior workmanship, or by tyranny, will be of 

24 



little permanent advantage. Organized labor must 
prove that it makes better workmen, that it gives 
better service to capital, and that unionism itself 
serves the workman to the best advantage. Unless 
union labor can prove its superiority, or at least unless 
it can prove that the quality of its work is equal to 
the best, then organized labor will fail to secure the 
support of the general public; even if, for the time 
being, it is recognized by capital, it must ultimately 
go down in ruin. 

United labor must stand for character and it must 
not support within its ranks men without character. 
It may of necessity admit them, and it may to an 
extent protect them, but it must not defend or pro- 
mote them. If the union is to be made a refuge for 
reckless agitators, indifferent workmen, or law breakers, 
then public recognition must soon be withdrawn. 
Nor must it encourage or permit lawlessness. Lawless- 
ness has been winked at by labor just as perverts of 
the law have been condoned by capital. Labor has 
no right to defend wrong ; nor has capital. Both must 
stand for truth and justice, and they must unite in a 
common purpose to punish guilt wherever found. 
Only then will capital and labor respect each other, — 
then only will capital and labor have earned public 
confidence. 

ORGANIZED CAPITAL vs. ORGANIZED LABOR. 

It may be asked why I am devoting so much time 
to the consideration of organized labor. 

I must answer first, that organized capital becomes 
a necessity because of the existence of organized labor, 

25 



and it must therefore be shown why capital must 
organize. In the next place the conflict between 
organized labor and capital is to-day the all-absorb- 
ing question. The columns of our daily newspapers 
are a record of this conflict. It overshadows the tariff 
or the money question, — trusts or imperialism. It is the 
one burning question of our time that goes home to 
every fireside. But there is a further and a better 
reason for treating at length the subject of organized 
labor. 

Inherently it has so much to commend it, — noth- 
ing necessarily to discredit it; practically there has 
been very much to condemn, much to praise, and yet 
only the minimum of good has been accomplished. 
The vital question is, can it fulfill its inherent mis- 
sion? Can it accomplish the maximum of good? It 
can! How? By legislation ? 

No ! Let Congress and State legislatures keep their 
hands off the whole labor question. It is a business 
question, which, — with no intention of disrespect to 
our law-makers, — can be better settled by capital and 
labor. Let capital organize, and this so-called labor 
problem will at once have been half solved. The rest 
will come just as soon as labor and capital have shown 
each other their proper places, — their limitations of 
power, and their obligations to society. It cannot be 
done otherwise, and it cannot be done one day sooner 
than such a process of education will permit, — you 
cannot hurry it a day or an hour if you should fill your 
statute books with the best laws that the wisest minds 
could devise. 



26 



ORGANIZED LABOR AN ACTUALITY. 

Wherever labor has organized it has very generally 
lessened the burdens of the laborer, and has increased 
its earnings. In the isolated instances where capital 
has organized it has not, I admit, stopped the 
petty tyranny of union labor, but it has mitigated 
the evil. It has reduced greatly the number of 
strikes and lockouts, something certainly worth while. 
Where it has not stopped petty tyranny, the reason 
has at least become apparent and the remedy is now 
known; it is also known that this remedy is in the 
general organization of all industries; that the pur- 
pose of such organization is that labor and capital 
shall deal with each other as business men, in gen- 
eral, deal with each other, — business men who have 
something to buy or to sell. 

But some men will say "we got along very well before 
the days of organized labor." Very true, but organ- 
ized labor is here and here it will remain unless it de- 
stroys itself. It is an actuality, and you cannot escape 
it if you want to. Capital cannot kill it, for it thrives 
on resistance. When it dies it will die by its own hand, 
and while capital might witness such an act with com- 
placency, still we must not forget that suicides have 
been known to destroy their victims before commit- 
ting their act of self-destruction. Organized labor, 
depend upon it, is here to stay, and it is the duty of 
every citizen to help make it an unqualified agency of 
good. The fault, if it is not made such an agency, 
becomes a fault common to us all and the penalty 
of failure falls upon all alike. 

Such an admission can now be safely made for 

27 



the reason that we have reached a point in industrial 
evolution where a large percentage of employers and 
employes are looking for points of agreement instead 
of looking, as was formerly the case, for differences. 
Under the old dispensation it was injustice and strife 
and war; under the new dispensation it can, and I 
confidently believe it will, be justice, prosperity and 
peace. 

THE RECOGNITION OF ORGANIZED LABOR. 

But you ask : Should capital everywhere and at once 
recognize organized labor? I answer both "yes," and 
"no." "Yes," where it has proven itself worthy, and 
"no" where it has not, and it is easy to distinguish 
between the worthy and the unworthy; but the day of 
universal recognition can be hastened by labor itself, 
and it must be so hastened. Labor gains nothing 
in the long run where capital recognizes the union 
prematurely, nor does it gain from unreasonable con- 
cessions. Where this is done the union is apt to prac- 
tice that ugly form of tyranny resulting from ignor- 
ance and -arrogance. Again, it hurts the discipline of 
the union because many of its members are not schooled 
to accept such hasty recognition and such unreasonable 
concessions in a wise and conciliatory spirit ; they would 
accept them as something wrested from capital, to be 
followed by further and equally important concessions 
each year. 

In the hope of making my meaning clear, let me 
illustrate it by reference to an industry with which 
I am quite familiar, — the bituminous coal mining in- 
dustry of the central states, viz.: Pennsylvania, Ohio, 

28 



Indiana and Illinois. In this vast field a disastrous 
strike occurred in 1897, continuing for many months, 
resulting in enormous losses to both capital and labor, 
losses resulting from time wasted and property de- 
stroyed. 

This strike was followed -by a joint conven- 
tion held at Chicago, in January, 1898. "The joint 
interstate movement" was inaugurated at this time, 
and since then, miners and operators have met annu- 
ally in' joint convention, and have made joint agree- 
ments for the ensuing year. But the point I desire 
to bring out is, some of the enormous gains to the 
miner at this particular period of time. These gains 
were, among others, a very material advance in the 
mining scale and in the wages of day labor, an eight- 
hour day and general recognition of the union. In 
1899 a further advance was demanded, but not obtained. 
In 1900, again an advance was demanded and obtained, 
which, according to Mr. Mitchell, amounted in the 
aggregate to $20,000,000. An advance was again de- 
manded in 1901, and also in 1902. 

It is true an agreement was reached in the years when 
no advance was obtained, but with great difficulty, and 
notably so in 1902, when it. required the combined influ- 
ence of the conservative forces in the miners' organiza- 
tion to prevent a strike. And this in the face of the fact 
that the operators had submitted to the miners the follow- 
ing proposition: We will submit our books to an im- 
partial commission, and if it appears that the average 
contract selling price for 1901 was not ten per cent 
less than in 1900, then an advance of ten per cent to 
the miners shall be granted, but if it is shown that 

29 



the decline in price of contract coal was ten per cent, 
or more than ten per cent, for the same period, below 
1900, then there shall be a corresponding reduction 
in wages. 

Whatever may be said of the wisdom of mak- 
ing such an offer or the wisdom of declining it, 
it at least proved that the operators sincerely believed 
they could not afford an advance, and the refusal of 
the miners to agree to it, and the further danger of a 
strike in spite of such a proposal, serve to show the dan- 
ger of granting too much at one time. Now, I maintain, 
and I believe conservative labor leaders will agree with 
me — that gradual concessions, made year by year, cov- 
ering, say, a period of three to five years, would have 
been better for a majority of the men, better for the 
discipline of the miners, better for the public, and 
infinitely better for the miners' organization. I empha- 
size the great advantage of such a course to the miners' 
organization, because I know how well nigh impossible it 
is for the conservatives to convince many ignorant 
miners, and miners unfamiliar with our language, as well 
as the radicals in their ranks, that an advance need not 
be expected and cannot be obtained every year. If these 
advances and improved conditions had come gradually, 
and the grant in each successive year of these improved 
conditions had been predicated upon the manner in which 
the miners fulfilled their agreements in the year closed — 
say, for example, a reduction of a half hour per day until 
the eight-hour day was reached, instead of an abrupt 
reduction from ten to eight hours — then the organization 
would have acquired an ever-increasing influence over its 
members that would have been a wholesome influence, 

30 



and its power would be a power for good. But as it is, 
the organization has that power which enables it to 
induce its members to come out on a strike at a moment's 
notice; and, however well intentioned the organization's 
officials may be, they may labor in vain for days or 
weeks to induce them to return to work. I have always 
maintained that the real complaint against labor 
organizations is not that the leaders have too much 
power over the men, but rather that they have not 
enough when it becomes necessary to enforce compliance 
with the agreements into which they deliberately enter, 
or to restrain them when they seek to accomplish a 
desired end by lawless means. 

IDEAS NEEDED, NOT GREATER POWER. 

After all, it is really not power they want so much as 
it is that something of which the East Tennessee parson 
stood sorely in need. The story, as I remember it, tells 
of a loud-preaching parson, who was calling upon the 
Lord to give him power. He wanted power, much power, 
divine power; in fact, he wanted all kinds of power, and 
he wanted it quick. He didn't hesitate to repeat himself 
to the Lord in longer sentences and in louder tones. 
Finally, one lean, long, lank East Tennessee mountaineer 
laid his hand on the pious and noisy suppliant's shoulder 
and said : 

"Parson, you don't need power; you've got power 
enough. What you need is idees. ' ' , 

And what organized labor needs is not more power, 
but great, healthy ideas — wise, noble ideals. 

Those who refuse to recognize organized labor need 
not be blamed, therefore, for hesitating to give it a trial 

31 



on the mere assurance that it is a good thing. This is 
plain enough to the initiated, who know that the 
union, once recognized, the employer class cannot with- 
draw voluntarily from the connection formed. If the 
union of the two is severed, it must be at the end of a 
bitter and costly struggle. Here may be fittingly applied 
the fable of the horse, which prayed that man might 
come to his assistance in his contest with the stag, and of 
the manner in which the man got on the horse and never 
got down again. So it is with the union: once recog- 
nized, either voluntarily or as the result of conflict, 
labor is, so to speak, on top and there it will remain until 
it has learned wisdom and moderation with years and 
association, or until a mighty conflict ensues. 

SOBER SECOND THOUGHT. 

Is it too much to hope that both capital and labor 
have learned moderation and wisdom since labor became 
an organized force ? Shall they learn nothing by experi- 
ence? Have they forgotten the history of African 
slavery in the United States, and how one of the greatest 
conflicts in the world's history might have been averted 
had men looked calmly at Henry Clay's great proposi- 
tion? All who are interested in the subject know how 
earnestly and eloquently he pleaded that the government 
would appropriate $25,000,000 toward the purchase of 
every infant slave, in order to secure its freedom. With- 
out entailing loss to any living . man or woman — 
by a simple process, slavery might have been 
allowed to die, and its death would have been far less 
tragic. But hot heads on one side advocated its imme- 
diate extermination, and irate owners of the opposing 

32 



factions sought to protect their property and perpetuate 
slavery. 

We have hot heads to-day in the ranks of both c apital 
and labor, and agreements are, therefore, difficult of 
consummation because each wants its own way. In the 
past, costly and bloody tragedies in the industrial world 
have ensued from seemingly trivial causes, and they will 
continue to repeat themselves in the future until the 
climax is reached in revolution, unless the sane repre- 
sentatives of capital and labor find a common ground of 
understanding. 

I have unbounded confidence in the sober judgment 
of the American people. But that judgment, so excellent 
when applied, must be earnestly and vigorously applied. 
Organized labor must think less of great numbers in its 
ranks, and think more of the. quality of its members. It 
must place skill and character above agitation and noise. 
Capital must organize and it must proceed to business. 
If it is wisely organized it has nothing to fear from 
organized labor. Then capital and labor will treat each 
other fairly, because they must; and if they do not, the 
public will make them. But if not properly organized 
the public may be deceived, as it at times has been de- 
ceived, misinformation having been offered and accepted 
as information — mere assertions accepted for facts. 

These observations on the recognition of organized 
labor refer especially to what is known as "common 
labor," that being the class with which I am most 
familiar, and not to that class of labor requiring unusual 
skill or deftness— a class of labor really protected by 
naturally favorable trade conditions, as well as by the 
greater intelligence and influence of the laborer. 

33 



I am asked, what about the unorganized labor? 
What will you do with it? If the unorganized labor 
of the United States finds that it cannot consistently 
unite with labor organizations now in existence, then 
it should organize independently of existing unions. 
This is an age of organization, and unorganized labor, 
even though it represents, as is claimed, ninety per 
cent of the labor of .the country, is absolutely helpless; 
and the tremendous advantage and the positive need 
of organization is easily to be found in the enormous 
power wielded by this ten per cent of labor now organ- 
ized in the United States. If either capital or unorganized 
labor needs a further argument why it should organize, 
and if such argument cannot be found in this fact alone 
it will not be found at all. 

INHERENT ADVANTAGES OF ORGANIZED 
LABOR. 

I have not endeavored to file a bill of complaint — 
t has not been my wish to do so, and I hope I have 
not appeared to pass an unfriendly criticism upon 
organized labor. And I have not attempted to cata- 
logue the industries of the country that now properly 
belong to the "organized capital" class. This is not the 
place to prefer specific charges against organized labor, 
and a description of the various experiments of organized 
capital should be treated in a separate and distinct 
discourse. But before dismissing the subject it is only 
right that I should give my reasons for believing that 
organized labor presents tremendous advantages of 
which organized capital should, and of which, no doubt, 
it will in time avail itself. In a general way the advan- 

34 



tages of dealing with labor collectively instead or in- 
dividually should be apparent, and under the system 
of joint bargaining which is now in vogue in the bitu- 
minous coal field, it is reasonable to expect greater 
stability and longer periods of prosperity than is pos- 
sible otherwise. Possibly I can best convey my mean- 
ing by repeating what I said on this head in my testi- 
mony before the National Industrial Commission, May 
13, 1901. I said on that occasion that "prior to the 
interstate joint movement chaos prevailed in the bitu- 
minous coal fields. The conditions throughout were de- 
moralized. Labor was dissatisfied. Strikes and lockouts 
happened almost daily, and always occurred in one of 
two ways. There being no uniformity in the mining 
scale, in the wages of day labor or in mining conditions, 
the miners of one mine or of a set of mines would strike 
because they were getting less pay than the miners at 
some other mine or set of mines. Then, on the other 
hand, certain operators who were paying a higher mining 
scale than their competitors would often shut down their 
mines until their mining rate was reduced. As a con- 
sequence there was always a strike or lockout somewhere, 
and such a thing as industrial peace in the bituminous 
coal fields was unknown" 

"Under the old system the more powerful operators 
could, and the less scrupulous operators did, take advan- 
tage of the miners on the one hand, and their scrupulous 
rivals on the other. That system not only encouraged 
unfair practices and threw into idleness tens of thousands 
of workingmen, but it crippled or bankrupted many honest 
coal operators," 

"Severe as competition is found to-day in the bitu- 

35 



minous coal field, it has its limitations, which it did not 
have before. The reason for this is plain. Relatively 
speaking, every operator in the bituminous field pays 
the same scale of wages, the same mining scale, and is 
governed by the same mining conditions. Each operator 
therefore knows substantially what it costs his rival to 
produce coal, and hence the selling price must of neces- 
sity be more nearly uniform." 

I do not wish to be understood as saying that this 
system of joint bargaining is perfect, nor do I contend 
that friction no longer exists, or that strikes and lock- 
outs cease to occur. But I do insist that it is at least a 
step forward. When capital generally organizes, and all 
the industries of the country work in harmony, stand- 
ing unitedly for capital's God- given rights, but showing 
a willingness to render unto labor that which in justice 
and fairness is labor's; and when it also joins in a great 
campaign for education on sociological questions, then 
we shall see this splendid system of joint bargaining 
the accepted system everywhere and the ultimate 
solution of the labor problem. 

DUALITY OF HUMAN NATURE. 

We might as well realize and admit now that there 
are two natures in every personality, the good and 
the bad. If it were not for the fact that these two 
natures were always at war, we would all be perfectly 
good or monstrously bad. But for the fact that we 
yield to the bad influences in our nature, we would 
have no trouble in hearing the voice of our own con- 
science, but we are often deaf because we follow selfish 
inclination rather than resist it. It is because of this 

36 



duality in the atomic whole, made up of our individual 
peculiarities, that discord often runs riot and faction 
vies with faction to clarify the national conscience. 
Herein the responsibility of the individual is increased, 
and he is brought face to face with the conviction that 
he is "his brother's keeper." As to the theory that 
"every man must work out his own salvation," it is 
no doubt all right in so far as it is a spur to our own 
individual energies, but if we apply it indiscriminately 
to our neighbors the advocacy of such a theory will 
certainly tend to make us uncharitable and unchristian, 
if not positively inhuman. If the employer, therefore, 
would seek to discover the proper disposition in the 
employe, he must himself possess the disposition and 
the intelligence to deal fairly and wisely, for in no 
other way can he hope to gain that confidence which 
becomes the axis on which great enterprises revolve. 
There is a courtesy of heart which is so finished in 
its outward expression that it seems akin to diplomacy, 
and the two are often confused. The employer who 
possesses either the one or the other never drives the 
employe and seldom hears threatening words. The 
time for diplomacy has arrived. The law of resistance 
is unchangeable, unyielding, and the successful solution 
of the labor problem lies more in method than in force. 
A wisely conceived, far-reaching educational propa- 
ganda therefore must be undertaken, and that at once. 

EDUCATION A NECESSITY. 

Unfortunately, we have too many men learned in the 
questionable science of knowing "how not to do a thing. 
The acquisition of wealth is oftentimes accidental, but a 

37 



large knowledge of economics must be, or should be, the 
force to distribute so potent a power as capital through the 
various channels of trade. The injudicious use of capital 
is responsible for many of the volcanic seasons of trade, 
when men, burning with the fever of speculation, and 
thirsting for larger gains, have ignorantly devastated 
great enterprises of fair promise, that might otherwise 
have benefited millions of human beings, themselves 
included. The financial history of our country records 
the panics of various decades, when men guilty of the sin 
of not knowing have lived through the tragedy of con- 
templating Herculaneums of rich promise buried under 
the blighting torrent of their own ignorance and folly. 

After all, the most important work necessary to-day 
is that of educating our people on the vast problem of 
labor, and from the men in the most exalted stations of 
American life down to the lowliest toiler, all should come 
under the influence of the propaganda of education. 

The education of the working classes is a necessity; 
but it must not be insisted that this' education is some- 
thing that is to be forced upon them. It must come in 
the form of information which they themselves are to 
seek and find. While education and information may 
practically mean the same thing, the adult masses might 
reject education as seeming to reflect upon their natural 
intelligence, or as something forced upon them against 
their will. We must not lose sight of the fact that the 
masses of the people are merely children, though men and 
women in years, and that children can be led but 
seldom driven. 

To counteract the effect of much harm already done 
upon the minds of the masses, an educative medium 

38 



must be selected which will reach every layer in the vast 
strata of human society. We must not forget that there 
is a literary poison current in labor circles that calls for 
a powerful antidote, if that poison is not to destroy the 
best influences of wise and conservative leaders, or if it 
does not destroy the necessary respect for constituted 
authority — whether of their own labor organization, or 
of the employer, or even of our government. 

This new teaching must find its way to the rostrum 
of church, university and public hall; it must find its 
way into the columns of the daily press and must become 
part of the education of the vast, varied and ever-growing 
population of our country. 

Those who wish good to be done and who have 
worked toward this end under the direction of wise 
organization, could meet the exigencies of the times by 
resorting to the pamphlet for the dissemination of life- 
giving knowledge. These simple brochures, written by 
able men who have spent years in probing for the solu- 
tions to vital issues, could be widely circulated at small 
expense — small, when weighed in the fatal balance of 
ignorance. They are more valuable for this purpose, a 
thousand fold, than vast libraries, for these are beyond 
the reach of the masses. In fact, they may refuse to seek 
knowledge until they have once learned its value. 

EMOTIONAL PHILOSOPHY. 

Much complaint, and this generally from the capital 
class, is urged against the intermeddling of emotional 
philosophers. No well informed person — no one inti- 
mately acquainted with both labor conditions and trade 
conditions— will fail to observe these philosophers view 

39 



the whole question sentimentally, and not practically, 
and they accept what they hear of the worst conditions 
of labor as the general conditions, and the minimum 
wages paid as the only wages received. It is not strange, 
therefore, that however good the intention of many of 
these emotional philosophers may be, and admitting 
really the great good accomplished by them as the ele- 
ment in society that awakens us from our apathy, it is, 
nevertheless, true, despite their intention to help, that 
they are oftentimes a hindrance. It is easy to under- 
stand, therefore, that intensely practical people share the 
sentiments of "Frederick the Great," who on one occa- 
sion said, that if he wanted to ruin any of his provinces 
he would make over its government to these philos- 
ophers. 

Any educational system to be adopted, therefore, must 
be so comprehensive as to reach labor and capital, press 
and people, pulpit and pew, teacher and student. 

When men are rightly informed and educated on 
vexed and mooted questions, then will the foundation be 
laid upon which every industry can be successfully 
builded. False standards have been erected in the name 
of justice and right and under these cruel banners men 
have often marched to their own destruction with the 
simple faith of children. 

The newspapers and journals of various kinds have 
often proven insidious mediums in deterring the progress 
of the proper organization of capital. These have often 
circulated articles written in good faith by men who have 
looked merely at the surface of great questions, and who 
have held with dangerous tenacity to the ancient adage 
that "money is the root of all evil, " without formulating 

40 



for themselves an honest analysis of the oft-repeated 
assertion. 

It were useless to contend that money has not been 
the root of much evil ; but those who strive for organiza- 
tion seek to prove to the world the soul of good in this 
so-called evil. The Creator of all things stands accused 
before the sons of men if the gifts of His bounty are 
declared incapable of being turned into the channels of 
blessing. If dissatisfaction continues and the ameliora- 
tion of all elements cannot be effected through a wise and 
liberal organization for the universal good of the masses, 
then man, and not God, is responsible for the prevailing 

discord. 

WEAK LEADERS A CURSE. 

There is an unwholesome idea prevalent in the minds 
of the unthinking and uneducated that the man who can 
create a riot is strong. This is a sad mistake. A weak 
leader can easily incite to riot; it requires a wise and 
powerfulleader to prevent one. If we could implant in 
the breasts of the misguided followers of unwise leaders, 
honorable ambitions and the inspiring lessons of self- 
help, there would soon be no riots to quell and prosperity 
would seem within the reach of all. With the lessons of 
self-help is inculcated a true estimate of the meaning and 
benefits of prosperity. The men who learn God's mean- 
ing of peace and plenty lose their ravenous appetites for 
abnormal wealth, find inner content, and become the 
bulwarks of the social organism. 

When capital is once organized and spirits har- 
monized to work for the common weal, men will cease to 
look for the solution of the labor problem, for no such 
problem will exist. 

41 



Our first duty is to make a homogeneous population 
of one now heterogeneous ; and this must be the work of 
the leaders in thought on all sides of the labor question, 
when they come together, with reverence for the work 
before them, to establish the remedies for various ills. 

It were not well, nor wise, nor right, to cry out against 
complaints as long as irregularities and causes for com- 
plaint exist. Stagnant pools are breeders of disease. 
Constant agitation is necessary for the purification of ill- 
arranged conditions. 

THE AMERICAN TEMPERAMENT. 

The carping pessimist who avers with every fresh 
upheaval in the channels of trade, that destruction of 
the American commonwealth is inevitable, reckons 
without his host, in that he fails in his analysis of the 
American temperament. Though there is a certain 
immutability in the fundamental principles governing 
the human family, there are racial and national char- 
acteristics which cannot be overlooked but will assert 
themselves when the mills of the gods of trade seem 
to grind but slowly. 

The blood which flows through American veins is 
the gulf stream which animates the spirit of the progress 
of to-day. This spirit has for its inheritance the multi- 
form coloring of an ever-active and complex traditional 
experience, — an experience which is not narrowed to 
the happenings of a few paltry decades, but which em- 
anates from conflicts of a remoter past which will sway 
the history of all future time. 

Possessing these inherited traits, the American 
of to-day has courage to restore order to all-seeming 

42 



chaos, and this has been illustrated by the many trials 
through which the country has already passed. When- 
ever the American people have by indiscretion or 
recklessness found themselves in the midst of com- 
plications of their own making, they have always 
managed to extricate themselves with surprising skill. 
Though- good common sense and racial quick- wittedness 
cannot be denied, we are now sufficiently advanced in 
years as a people to show some maturity of judgment. 
If possessed of such maturity we must cultivate the 
foresight to avoid those more trying situations certain 
to arise in the experience of a great nation ; difficulties 
so grave and complications so intricate that we shall 
not be able to so readily extricate ourselves as we have 
been able to do thus far under less complex conditions. 

CONSERVATIVE TENDENCIES. 

If the education of the masses of laboring men belong- 
ing to labor organizations could be made to keep pace 
with the educational progress of their leaders the labor 
problem would be a less difficult one of solution. But 
the great difficulty lies in the fact that the labor leader 
becomes, with experience, both progressive and con- 
servative; then, if he is seen to retreat from his 
radical position and to take a position that is equitable 
and that can be justified by the existing conditions of 
labor and of trade he is often suspected, accused, 
denounced, and possibly dethroned by the great army 
of laborers whose progress along educational lines has 
not kept pace with his own. The result is, therefore, 
that either the labor leader is apt to be displaced 
or else he may consent to play the game of small 

43 



politics in order to retain his hold upon the masses 
of his craftsmen. The labor leader, like the politi- 
cian, or so-called political leader, too often keeps his 
ear to the ground and lets his course be determined by 
what he conceives to be the popular demand. 

It is fair to say that the chief grounds of objection 
urged against labor organizations by the employer class 
are identical with the chief dangers to the life of the 
organization itself. For example, the petty tyranny 
of the members of the union, annoying as it is to the 
employer, is as harassing and humiliating to the offi- 
cials of labor organizations. Organized capital must, 
therefore, unite with organized labor in devising some 
plan whereby the whole loaf of labor can be thoroughly 
leavened. The too common complaint of inequality 
must be met and in a rational way satisfied, for it is 
the real or seeming inequality of conditions which is 
the chief source of discontent, here and elsewhere. 

INEVITABLENESS OF INEQUALITY. 

The most indestructible keystone upon which to 
build the future structure, the wise and judicious organi- 
zation of capital, is the universal and earliest possible 
recognition of the unchanging fact, that conditions 
cannot be made equal. When the fact is once estab- 
lished in the minds of all classes and becomes as much 
a part of human consciousness as the existing light of 
day or warmth of the sun, then will the discouraged 
find hope and the undaunted optimist welcome his 
reward. The masses in America must learn that fortunes 
and conditions can no more be equalized than brain 
and brawn. 

44 



There is a Via Media in human life which is good 
enough to satisfy the ambition of the masses, and 
which seems within the reach of the majority of Ameri- 
can citizens, but there are those who must attain the 
dizzy heights of abnormal prosperity or else suffer a 
discontent that is not divine in its spirit. 

We might well emulate the spirit of the old negro 
who was asked, "What kind of a place do you covet 
in heaven, Uncle Dave?" 

"Not so low, suh, dat the angels could step on me, 
an not so high dat I'd get dizzy and come tumblin'." 

Classes, like individuals, overestimate their part of 
the service rendered in our social economy. The laborer 
argues that labor is more essential than capital because 
it creates capital, while capital on the other hand too 
often looks down upon labor as something it supports 
and sustains. In other words, labor is envious of capital, 
and capital is disdainful of labor. Here, then, is found 
one fruitful cause of strife between the two, and it is 
to be doubted if the cause can entirely be removed 
as long as human nature continues supremely selfish. 

Human nature cannot be changed, but the excesses of 
supreme selfishness can be restrained. It would be 
foolish to hope and idle to try for the equal apportion- 
ment of all blessings. The centralization of wealth is 
one of the results of a growing civilization, about 
which there seems an inevitableness based upon a law 
as old as the creation, — that conditions cannot be 
made equal. 

No more will all men be equally healthy, wise, learned, 
contented; but the health that one man enjoys may 
come to be considered as balancing the wealth of the 

45 



invalid; the peace of mind and freedom from want 
which are the blessing of some men certainly balance 
the ambitions or the cares of office of many much- 
envied public functionaries. It is needless, therefore, 
to try to equalize conditions to conform to a popularly 
erroneous idea, but we should concern ourselves with 
actual and hard and needless inequalities, — with the 
want, the poverty, the suffering of underpaid labor, — 
and with that discontent resulting from an absence 
of all reasonable and necessary comforts for the fami- 
lies of laboring men and laboring women. On the 
other hand, capital must be protected and allowed, 
unhindered, to earn all it can without injury to society. 

INTERESTS NOT IDENTICAL. 

The statement is often heard that the interests of 
employer and employe are identical; that they are 
mutual. If this be true, then surely capital deals un- 
fairly with labor. But it is not true. It is only true 
to the extent that both capital and labor have steady 
employment. Beyond this the contributions are un- 
equal, a fact which capital and labor both have recog- 
nized for centuries. The employer furnishes the capital; 
he furnishes from his own mind or he supplies from 
the minds of others the genius for conducting great 
business enterprises; and if he fails, his chances of 
retrieving his fortune are slight. In his prosperity 
he has acquired expensive or luxurious habits from 
which he cannot easily divorce himself. The odds 
against recovery are well-nigh overwhelming. 

The laborer, on the other hand, furnishes skill and 
strength, or strength and endurance. These are his 

46 



capital, which the failure of his employer does not 
impair, and which, in our busy land, are not allowed 
to remain unemployed. The laborer has lost no pres- 
tige, which, alas! the employer sadly suffers, and 
under such conditions the laborer unquestionably has 
the advantage. Labor chafes under the consciousness 
that it is filling the coffers of Dives, and yet how 
can it be otherwise? We see the smaller town pour 
its treasure into the larger town; the poor earn their 
bread while they earn the rich man his capital. Our 
movements are ever but the tributaries to something 
vaster that lies beyond, and while we are animate 
beings, can no more be checked than the busy streams 
which feed the vaster bodies of water. We must not 
forget while recognizing that this is so, that it is part 
of the great system, and that we can, like the stream, 
if we keep within bounds, refresh and enrich our im- 
mediate environment. We are blessed with an intel- 
ligence that transcends physical forces, and through 
this blessing all men are equal, and, furthermore, 
we all well know, when we subject ourselves to careful 
self-examination, that by the practice of frugality 
and industry on the part of labor, and honesty and 
generosity on the part of capital, we can at least greatly 
reduce or minimize those inequalities in life of which 
we usually complain. As it is these inequalities which 
have been the chief cause of discontent, so it is a gradual 
ascension from poverty to the middle class, which 
must be brought about as the harmonizing influence 
in society. 

47 



MIDDLE CLASS THE CONSERVATIVE FORCE. 

The conservative force in society after all is the 
great middle class, neither the very rich nor the very 
poor, but the class of men who, though they have 
homes and possibly small means, are obliged to work 
every day in order to preserve and protect their pos- 
sessions. This is the class in our society which must 
save us from the excesses of the very rich who want 
to absorb everything, and from the very poor who 
want to destroy everything. A perfect vertebral forma- 
tion is necessary in the anatomical structure to sup- 
port the nerve centres and control cerebral strength 
and vitality. Without this force the human organism 
would fail in many of its functions, and the individual 
would but poorly discharge his obligations to the 
community. The middle class is the backbone of the 
social organism and vitalizes and animates many 
phases of the complex life of to-day. It affects no dis- 
guises and recognizes the sorry plight of those social 
jackdaws who don the plumage of peacocks and strut 
to excess before an exclusive little court where money 
reigns king, and pretence makes a merry jest with the 
baubles of the reigning sovereign. 

Thanks be to God! all who own wealth do not 
prostrate themselves before the money king, for Ameri- 
ca's real aristocracy is not of the contemptible minority 
whose password is excess. The so-called aristocracy 
have erected their diminutive stage and are always 
before the public, presenting their little play as a 
valuable object lesson for the vast American audience; 
but their audience has learned that true aristocracy 

48 



lies within the human heart and can become the pos- 
session of all. 

The needy and struggling poor must strive to reach 
a place in the ranks of the great middle class, and in 
proportion as they take their place the number of 
abnormally rich will be reduced. Thus can be brought 
about a more just and equitable distribution of the 
comforts of life. To reach the middle class does not 
necessarily mean plenty for the wage earner, but it 
can mean enough for daily needs. The first step toward 
plenty is the possession of a home, — a home that is 
your own, not only as a shelter, but to bring you into 
the property-owner class. When we are once property 
owners we become better citizens, because, having 
something to protect, we are the more anxious to 
establish and maintain stable government. The sooner 
young men own their homes, the sooner they become 
members of the great middle class, and this insures 
their manly dignity against the ignominy of asking 
alms or of selfishly seeking old age pensions. 

In the final conflict, if a conflict ever comes between 
capital and labor, this great middle class will stand 
with whichever side has given the best example to 
the country of fidelity to duty and a strict observance 
of the laws of the land. 

The man of salary as well as the wage earner seldom 
saves anything. This is true, in large cities, of the 
day laborer who gets $1.00 per day; of the artisan who. 
earns $3.00 to $5.00 per day; of the clerk who earns 
from $50 to $100 per month, and the superintendent 
or manager who gets from $2,400 to $10,000 per annum. 
Naturally we ask, why is this so? Is it not because 

49 



each one asks himself, on how little can I live, or what 
is the least that will suffice? When wage earners or 
salaried men decide how much they will save out of 
their earnings there will be some reason to hope that 
they will be transferred to the capital class. Here 
they will put a higher value upon their services and 
look more closely to the accumulation of a fortune. 

Another reason why wage earners or salaried men 
are not, as a rule, money makers is because they give 
little thought to the first essential of money making, 
viz. : saving. The money maker, on the other hand, 
thinks of money making only. It is a life-purpose 
in itself. 

Inability to accumulate a competency or a fortune 
(and that is what we call success) is too often attributed 
to some existing business system or to certain condi- 
tions under which we labor. Success, we must grant, is 
often determined by wisely conceived systems and 
favorable conditions, but, after all, individual effort, 
capacity and conduct are primarily and absolutely 
essential. These absent, any systems, however good, 
will be unavailing; and, where these attributes abound, 
we shall find strong men who succeed despite condi- 
tions or systems. There is much in knowing how to 
take hold of difficulties and how to make them stepping 
stones to success. The men who possess this ability 
laugh at the rough places in the path of labor. 

HOW TO PROTECT THE FUTURE. 

There are many thousands to-day who take com- 
fort in the belief that the labor problem has its solu- 
tion written on the page of an early future. If those 

50 



who cherish such a hope will renew their efforts toward 
its confirmation, the day may be nearer than we know, 
but woe to the complacent optimism that folds its 
pinions in this very material age of strikes and lockouts! 
It was your own great "Autocrat," I believe, who 
said, that to reform a man we must begin with his 
great grandfather. The noble old Autocrat was right, 
and we of to-day should watch with parental care 
and solicitude the cradles of those infant enterprises 
which may contain the very germs of future triumphs. 
Just as the cradles of to-day are the tenements for 
the progenitors of future races of men, so the forma- 
tive influences in connection with the labor problem 
may be the harbingers of the solution of this great 
issue a generation or two hence. 

"He plants the tree who never sees the fruit," 
and if strikes and lockouts,— the tragic synonyms for 
discord,— are to be made things of the "past, let us 
ascertain the sources from which they emanate and 
devise ways and means for their extermination. 

Are we to remain laggards because we may not 
gather fruit from this tree we are to plant? Is it not 
enough for us to know that our grandchildren will 
enjoy its shelter and taste of its blessings? 

Would to God it might become our ambition 
this very day and hour, here in this mother house of the 
republic, to cultivate a more intimate and helpful com- 
radeship, — a greater neighborliness, — a stronger bond of 
brotherhood. Thus we might stand for our ideals, both 
in theory and in practice, and condemn the false, the 
dishonest, the hurtful usages that endanger human so- 
ciety, and bring to an end at least the voidable conflicts 
of capital and labor which in our day and time are 
disturbing our nation's serenity. 

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